TNAG-0633-FCO40-781-Effect-of-GATT-Multi-Fibre-Arrangement-on-Hong-Kong-negotiat-1977 — Page 14

THE

COPY

FOR

COVERING CONFIDENTIAL

U/C

1. cc M. Thompson HKGD 2. Enter HK + MEA

PR

*TEXTILES: MFA: HONG KONG

1.

IND

H

28x4

Mr Tsao telephoned this morning to enquire about the likely timing of the Community's letter of acceptance of the renewed MFA.

2. On the strength of UKREP Brussels tels nos 7868 (para 11) and 7954 I told Mr Tsao that it was my understanding that the Community

would be signing up before the end of the year. Mr Tsao then said that he was about to telex his recommendations to Hong Kong on Hong Kong's acceptance and if his recommendation were approved and subject to the completion of all other traditional clearance procedures, we

would be likely to receive a telex fairly early in January inviting you to notify UK acceptance on Hong Kong's behalf. There may be more

to the question of timing than that but I am inclined to think that Mr Tsao was anxious to avoid the kind of complication we ran into in 1974, where in fact HMG signed for Hong Kong before the Commission

signed up for the Community. See in this connection ff 47 to 50 on file GA 3/2 (1974). I have explained to Mr Tsao that if things move

very quickly early in January he may find both you and me away but this of course presents no difficulty: the letter of notification can

go from whoever is in charge depending on date, whether yourself, myself or H of C.

Иваш

K FX Burns

21 December 1977

cc: XJ Stern Esq, EID(E), FCO

Miss A Macfarlene, CRE1, DOT Miss L Lowne, . CTD, DOI

P Roberts Esq, UKREP Brussels Mr Bicknell or

-

to pass on to Mr Hunt

414